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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to be based in Auckland for remainder of pregnancy

11 Jun, 2018 5:14pm

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PM Jacinda Ardern speaks during her last post-Cabinet conference before having her baby, announcing she is to be based in Auckland after today, has no name for her baby yet, and talks about privacy. / Video by Mark Mitchell

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has held her last post-Cabinet press conference with the media before having her baby, revealing today she will be basing herself in Auckland for the rest of the week.

Ardern's child is due next Sunday and she told reporters at her weekly briefing that it had been pointed out she may be "tempting fate" to continue travelling so near her due date.Parliament resumes this week after a two-week break.

Ardern was in good spirits as she informed reporters that while she would continue to work this week, she would be based in Auckland.

"The suggestion has been that my consistent travel may be tempting fate to a certain degree so I will be travelling within vehicular distance from Auckland for the remainder of the week."

Ardern admitted to being excited about the upcoming birth, a first child for her and partner Clarke Gayford.

"Yes, of course. The impending arrival of a new addition to your family is an exciting time. I have to admit though, of course, things like travel does add a little air of tension because it means that you are not just managing your own but you are managing logistics in case things happen before you are ready."

Ardern said she could reassure New Zealanders that the plan to hand over to Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters during her six weeks' parental leave was robust and in place.

Peters will be acting Prime Minister while Ardern is on leave.

The pair hammered out a plan some weeks ago and Ardern gave Peters a formal letter outlining his duties while he's in charge.

"These things are often intuitive. We already know the things that we engage on and I would expect there just to be a continuation of that, as Deputy Prime Minister Peters would as well."

Ardern said if there was any issues such as disciplining a Labour MP, she would expect that she or deputy Labour leader Kelvin Davis would be involved.

"I'm still the leader of the Labour Party. Minister Peters is not taking over as acting leader of the Labour Party, so that's something that I would expect myself or Kelvin Davis to be involved in."

Ardern said picking out a baby name was going "terribly" and asked for suggestions.

She laughed when a reporter suggested Winston.

"You're not the first to suggest that."

She said she understood the curiosity around her pregnancy and the birth but hoped for some privacy after her baby was born.

"I'm keen to make sure that, given all the well wishes that we've had and all of the kindness that New Zealanders have shown, making sure that we at least put out a response to that by sharing the good news. So we're trying to find ways that we can do that whilst also balancing the fact that we hope to have a little bit of quiet time together as a family too."